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User blog:Writer of the wiki/ERB blog of the week I - Philosophy battle
Hello users, this will be my first blog about ERB. In this first episode I will talk about the philosophers battle. The philosophers west To start this blog I will introduce the philosophers. 1. Socrates (c. 469 - 399 bc): To keep it simple; Socrates believed in ultimate truths, whch could be found in one's mind. It was an arrogant man, who always showed up at partys uninvited. There he asked everyone difficult questions and collected many perspectives. 2. Voltaire Voltaire (1694 - 1778 ad): To keep it simple: He was the most important figure of the Enlightment; an intellectual en religious movement (yes it was a religious movement believe it or not) that emphasized the role of the individual in contrast to the authoritarian role of the church and state. I could write a whole blog aobut the enlightment but I'll show mercy and won't do that to you. Just keep in mind that the philosophers believed true power lay in reason and not in things like divine justification. The movement was not againt religion but against useless dogmas and the centralisation of power. This sounds (and sounded) vague, and therefore many intellectuals form the Enlightment had different ideas. Voltaire stood for the freedom of religion and theseperation of state en religion. He also is one of the most important people of the Deism ''movement; the idea that God ocne created the universe and since then never influenced his creation. 3. Nietzsche Nietzsche (1844 - 1900): To keep it simple: He criticized religion (Voltaire didn't do that like he did). He is known for the expression: God is dead, but that is a very difficult statement I do not fully understand yet. For example, many people think he did not deny the existence of God and for Gods sake the man even tried to undermine his own ideas, so we have to accept his contradictions sometimes. I (and many others( think Nietzsche did not believe a God died some time ago. He blieved that all out ideas, ethics etc are just illusions, based on nothing. Someone who finds that out, experiences a crisis and might get into a depression or something like that. (I personally think you won't realise this as long as you fuck enough). Nietzsche thought humans should learn to live without false illusions like religion etc. You live, to live. East 4. Sun Tzu Sun Tzu (c. 544 - 496 bc) was a general in the kingdom of Wu in East-China. He wrote the famous work ''The Art of War about strategies in 'wa'. Ofcourse it is not just about war. It is also used in just life and many bussinessman use it (according to the preface in my version). 5. Confucius (551 - 179 bc) is the most influental CHinese philosopher ever. During his life he was a grumpy man that never had any succes. No one wanted to hire him. He was hower very good at teaching and talking to students. To keep it simple; He wanted to keep the community safe by keeping ethics high. For example; young people have to respect their elders, people have to be righteous and everybody should be just 'nice'. For all this Chinese folks use terms like Ren, Li, Yi, Ziao and Yin etc. He also believed some people were just beteer than other people, because they were able to 'hear' the ocmmands from 'The Heavens'. He also thought a ruler could rule by just giving good example. He should never force anyone to do something. 6. Lao Tzu Lao (571 - 531) is the founder of Taoism. He was not 'social' like Confucius but believed that people should turn their back on civilisation and do something like living in small communities, that never interfere with eachother. Comparissons The Chinese philosophers played a huge role in the development of China. China is one of the only countries that has been a unified state through almost it's entire history (ALMOST!). Europe did not have that. It has never been unified, because of it's divided geography. The Romans tried it, Charlesmagne tried it, Napoleon tried it, Hitler tried it and now the European Union tries it. Because of the divisions in Europe, the philosophers and cultures are all very different (more than in China). Yet, there are similarities. For example, the ideas of Lao Tsu are almost the same as the ideas of Montesqieu; a philisoper and rival of Voltaire during the Enlightment. The ideas of Socrates and Nietzsche contradict eachother, for Socrates believed in ultimate truths and Nietzsche did not. Sun Tzu kinda represents the third movement in China: Legalism. During the classical antiquity there were three movements in china; Confucianism (the role of society and ethics), Taoism (anti-civilisation) and Legalism (use of brute force to rule), However, Sun Tzu is not the most important legalist; tose were SHang Yang (390 - 338 bc) and Han Feizo )280 - 233). They inspired the first chinese emperor to rule without doubt. These ideas sound a lot like the ideas of Macchiavelli, who could have been used in this rap battle. Battle When I heard the audio for the first time, it sounded chaotic to me (not because it was chaotic but because english is not my native language and it was difficult for me to distinguish all the rappers. After I watched the video multiple times I started to appreciate the battle. Opinion I would have prefered a battle between Socrates, Confucius and Boeddha. They all lived in the same time and were very influental. My problem with this battle is not the battle itsself, it is amazing. I just don' like the setup. The three chinese rappers are from the same time; the classical antiquity, while the western philosophers are all from a different time. Also, the western philosophers do not have a lot in common. Everyone of them could have been replaced by another philosopher and the battle would have been a bit the same. Now, it is not like we have three important philisophers from the west from the classical antiquity; ...o wait we do; Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. However, I understand that using philosophers from later ages gives the battle some fresh aspects. It is just a bit awkard; for Voltaire en Nietzsche are not even seperated by that much time, while between them and socrates lies more than 2000 years. It would have been logical is ERB used like;a rapper from antiquity, a rapper from the middle ages and a rapper from the modern time. Too much The blog is too short to tell you all about philosophy but it is a very interesting subject. If you have any questions; I will try to answer them. Good luck Category:Blog posts